Gilead Chapter Abstracts for Teachers

Section 1 (pages 1-8)

• The narrator, John Ames, states that he is dying of a heart condition.

• John explains that he was married and bore a son late in life.

• He is a minister like his father and his grandfather, and it is the only life he knows.
• John recalls his pet cat playing with bubbles, helping his son get ready for school, and watching his son try to put together a broken crayon.

• He writes of an encounter with two young men, garage workers, and how he sees the experience as beautiful.

• He traces his ancestry back three generations. His father and grandfather were also named John.

Section 2 (pages 9-37)

• John recounts how he and his father journeyed to Kansas to find his grandfather's grave.

• John recalls his first marriage to a woman named Louisa, and how she and their daughter Rebecca died in childbirth.